


Protect the Heartfront

by Myoneloveismusic



Category: DCU, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Wally's POV, retelling of young justice season one episode 12, the red tornado siblings are here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 04:03:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15878136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Myoneloveismusic/pseuds/Myoneloveismusic
Summary: When the Red Tornado Twins attacked Mt. Justice, Wally was stuck sitting on the sidelines and watching Dick and Artemis take them down and rescue them. Normally, he would've taken the chance to sit by and ogle his boyfriend at work, but considering how powerful their enemies were and that they took down the four super-powered members of the team in no time at all, he had a right to be worried. He just hoped they all made it out alive.





	Protect the Heartfront

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a retelling of Young Justice Season 1 Episode 12 where the Reds attack the Cave and Dick and Artemis have to rescue them all. I thought it would be fun to throw in a relationship between Dick and Wally and tell it from Wally's POV since he was pretty much stuck in rock the whole episode. 
> 
> I had a lot of fun writing this so enjoy!
> 
> <3 MOLIM

When Wally had first heard the announcement made by one of the tornado twins asking for Artemis and Robin, his first feeling was relief because that meant he had someone who could break him out of the rock encasing he was trapped in. His second was terror because Dick and Artemis, the two members of their team _without powers_ , were up against two superpowered robots that had subdued the rest of them without breaking a circuit.

What was worse was that he was stuck in place, left to wait, and had no idea how Artemis or Dick were faring against them. It was a small relief when the announcements kept coming, asking for them to turn themselves in because that meant they hadn’t been captured. But the water rising around him was a less cool way to go.

He practically flinched when the surface of the water broke several yards from him to reveal Artemis and Dick. He saw the hotter, and not in a good way, half of the twins bearing down on them, ready to release a fireball on their heads.

“Look out!” he cried, heart stuttering in his chest when they ducked under the water and away from the attack. He watched them swimming underwater, knowing they would have to come up for air soon and the red flame would be waiting for them.

They resurfaced next to him and Wally let out a breath for the half-second that they were able to spare before more fire descended on them and they had to make another hasty escape, disappearing from his line of sight for the stairs leading up to the platform where Kaldur and M’gann were trapped. Wally strained to see around the corner where Dick and Artemis were fighting when the water Red waded up the steps. He was desperate to know what was going on and hated being cut off.

One of Dick’s throwing discs embedded itself in the rock next to his head. He blinked, letting out a heavy breath, but glad to know they were still fighting and alive. He grinned and chuckled when he heard the muffled sounds of Dick’s and Artemis’s fight coming through the disk.

“What are you laughing about?” Connor hissed.

“Supey, aren’t you supposed to have super hearing? Rob just gave me a way to communicate with him. There’s a chip in this disk next to my head,” he explained, grinning at Connor who returned it with a huff and a smile of his own.

Wally’s merriment was cut short and he frowned when he heard water crash over the mic and looked at the disc. He sat and waited, body tense in the rock and he found he was unconsciously tugging at it to try and break free. He needed to race to them. He needed to make sure Dick stayed safe.

Dick sucked in a breath, gasping for air with Artemis next to him. Wally let out a shaky breath at knowing they were okay but was unable to relax since he was still forced to listen to whatever shit was going down.

_“What do we do now?”_ Artemis asked.

_“We save them. That’s how it works,”_ Dick answered, ever the calming voice when tensions were high and the situation was just a little too dire.

_“Maybe that’s how it’s_ supposed _to work, but those robots already took out our four super-powered friends.”_

Wally grit his teeth, straining against his hold again. This wasn’t good. If Artemis was freaking out and refusing to listen to Dick’s advice, then Dick was basically fighting a battle against three people instead of just two robots. He wouldn’t be able to make it himself if he had to drag her the whole way.

_“You seem distraught,”_ Dick said calmly.

Wally fought to breathe and relax. Dick was still calm. He was going to make it through this. He had the potential to calm Artemis down and turn the tide in their favor. Not that he needed to be making water jokes when he was faced with possibly drowning. Actually, that thought could go fuck itself because now was the perfect time to be making water jokes if it meant his ass was being saved.

_“Distraught?”_ Artemis cried. _“M’gann is dying, we have no powers, and I’m down to my last arrow. Of course I’m distraught!”_

_“Well get traught or get dead,”_ Dick said, voice tense.

Wally swallowed, wanting to say…something to that, but there wasn’t much he could say when that was the reality of their situation.

_“How can you be so calm?”_ Artemis asked, something of the hysteria draining from her voice.

_“Practice,”_ Dick answered easily. _“I’ve been doing this since I was nine.”_

_“What good is that now? What chance to we have against unrelenting machines?”_

Wally grit his teeth and narrowed his eyes. Artemis could do better than this. She wasn’t helping the situation _at all_ and Dick was desperately trying to be optimistic. He didn’t need her pessimism narrowing his ability to think and adapt to the situation to get them all out of there safely.

_“Oh, duh!”_ Dick said, and Wally could hear the gears turning in his head. _“They’re machines. And one electromagnetic pulse will shut down any machine within range.”_

Wally grinned, his brain already thinking over the components needed to build something like that. There were plenty of resources in the Cave and as long as they could build one fast enough and get it hooked up to a power source, taking down the tornado twins wouldn’t be a problem.

_“Great!”_ Artemis said. _“Except you better have an EMP emitter in your utility belt because I know I don’t have one in my quiver.”_

Wally rolled his eyes and huffed.

_“I’m fresh out,”_ Dick said, and Wally could hear the grin in his voice, his usual glee in the face of battle finally rising to the surface. _“But I’m betting we can make one. What do you say, KF? Doable?”_

Wally grinned. “Totally doable,” he said, eyes roving over where the twins were standing on the platform above them.

_“Five minutes,”_ the tornados announced.

“You know if you, had more time,” he conceded.

Dick chuckled over the line and it put him at ease. “We’ll have this done in a flash, dude.”

Wally laughed, feeling himself lighten at the old joke. He started rattling off what Dick needed to do, listening as he confirmed what he found and ran through setting things up. Once that was complete and it needed to be placed in the generator, the line fell silent as they made their way back to the hanger.

Wally watched the rising water level with increasing dread and hoped that it wouldn’t get much higher before the tornado twins were shut off. Dick’s stealth let him get in and out of places quickly. He just hoped that it would be enough to get by without being noticed by two incredibly powerful robots.

_“Okay,”_ Dick said, voice coming through the line in a husky whisper that he should not have found so appealing when he was in a life or death situation. _“Make with the distraction.”_

Wally started babbling random nonsense. He didn’t care what came out of his mouth as long as it held the attention of the robots. He was glad to have Connor’s help to hold their attention. It gave him a minute between insults to keep from freaking out over how exposed Dick was on the edge of the generator.

“Time to reroute the power,” Dick mumbled over the line. “It’s not working,” he muttered

Wally’s heart practically stopped, and he fumbled in the middle of his next insult, his panic increasing and creating a heavy pressure on his chest.

“The circuit’s incomplete,” Dick grumbled. “I need something conductible. A piece of metal or-“

Wally’s eyes widened when the tornado twins turned, their gazes falling on Dick’s hunched form. He barely heard Artemis’s cries for Dick to move when a tidal wave washed up the side of the generator and crashed into him, his pained cry sounding over the comm link through the disk.

“No, no, _no_ ,” Wally cried, trying to launch himself forward. He had to get to him. He had to pull him from the water and make sure he was okay. He searched the water, looking for any sign of Dick when a column of water was raised next to the platform, Dick floating listlessly inside of it, his arms limp at his sides. His lips were parted, but he didn’t see any bubbles escaping.

“Come on, Rob,” Wally pleaded under his breath. “You can’t do this. This can’t be what beats you,” he said, voice cracking.  

Panic constricted his chest and his heartrate increased as he grew more frantic, struggling against the rock that held him in place. He needed to get free. He needed to make sure Dick was still breathing and he needed to get him help if he needed it. He couldn’t let him drown. He couldn’t let him die right in front of him and do nothing about it.

Dick’s body was lowered to the platform, the water falling away as the twins approached his limp body.

“Get away from him!” Wally cried, unable to contain himself any longer. He didn’t care what they did to him if it got them away from Dick.

They didn’t even spare him a glance as he fought against the hold the rock had on him. He struggled and grunted, trying to force himself free.

“Kid Flash,” Connor said. “Kid Flash!” he shouted when Wally continued to struggle and ignored him.

“What?” he gasped, looking over at him, feeling his heart breaking and crumbling in his chest.

“He’s going to be okay.”

Wally’s heart pounded in his chest. “He’s up there with them. I have to help him. I have to get to him,” he said.

“I surrender,” Artemis’s voice echoed out over the Cave. “Stop the clock.”

“What?” Wally hissed. “How could she! What’s she thinking? Rob fought like hell for her and she’s just going to-“ he inhaled his last breath as the water rose above his head. He held onto the air in his lungs, fighting to slow his heartbeat so he didn’t let his breath out and choke on the water pressing in on him.

He squeezed his eyes shut, imagining what Dick looked like on the platform above. He wondered if his chest was rising and falling. If he didn’t get to him soon…

Wally blinked when the water level receded, and his head resurfaced leaving him gasping for breath. His gaze went to the platform and he saw the fire had disappeared. He chuckled, knowing he’d greatly misjudged Artemis.

“Kaldur, how’s M’gann?” Connor called.

“She breathes,” he called down to them. “I believe she will recover. How’s Robin?” he asked, looking over his shoulder.

Wally’s heart constricted in his chest. His breaths coming faster even though he hadn’t managed to catch his breath yet. He was lightheaded. This was one of the worst days he’d ever experienced as part of the team. Or maybe ever.

Muffled and watery coughing sounded, and Wally squeezed his eyes shut. He was ready to collapse and take a day for himself.

“He-he’s breathing, too,” Artemis called.

The sound of Dick’s breaths was the best thing he’d heard on one of the worst days ever.

“Way to get traught,” he said weakly and Wally couldn’t help but laugh and grin up at the platform, as exhausted as he felt.

“Now that we’re all alive and well, how’s about you cut me out of this rock so I can kiss my boyfriend?” Wally called up to them.

He heard Dick laugh and it was a minute before he walked over to the edge of the platform, his arm around Artemis’s shoulders as she held him up.

“Give us a minute to catch our breath, will you?” he asked.

“Can’t. That EMP blast won’t last forever and we need to contain the tornado twins before they’re back online,” Wally explained.

They all sobered, and Dick and Artemis shared a look before they hurried off as fast as they could, Dick needing a minute to get his legs back underneath him.

Kaldur and M’gann were given water first. While they rehydrated, Artemis dug out something to try and carve away the rock, but it was offline like everything else.

When M’gann was back on her feet, she levitated the reds down to the base of the platform and their group crowded around Connor and Wally to get the full story on what happened.

“Figured my only shot was to surrender,” Dick explained. “Pretend to drown before I actually did. Blacked out though,” he added with a shrug.

Wally narrowed his eyes and glared at Dick who gave him a small, too innocent smile in return. He wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of the casing he was trapped in and to smack Dick for being such a reckless idiot and getting himself almost killed. And then he was going to hug him because he was his idiot and he was glad they were both okay in the face of nearly dying.

He was antsy to be free since he didn’t trust Dick enough to just pass off as being okay. It would be just like him to hide an injury so as not to worry them all until everything was taken care of.

“Will you quit playing with that thing and cut us free?” Wally asked, glaring at Artemis.

“It’s not working genius,” she hissed back. “EMP shuts down all machines. Remember?”

“All machines present at the time,” a new voice amended. Red Tornado hovered over and landed next to the group. “What has occurred?” he asked.

“Had a little visit from your family,” Dick explained.

“Your extremely nasty family,” Artemis added and for once Wally could whole-heartedly agree with her.

“I was not aware I had relations,” he said, walking over to the two reds that were stretched out on the floor.

The machine in Artemis’s hands released a beam and Wally looked at Dick, his stomach sinking.

“The pulse has worn off,” they said in unison, looking to Red Tornado.

He reared back from the twins and immediately flew into the air, creating twin tornados on his arms that began to suck the air from the room. Wally watched in horror as Dick stumbled, clutching at his throat and unable to breathe again. Wally tried to brace himself against the lack of air, but the edges of his gaze were quickly going black.

He couldn’t let them get trapped again. Dick and Artemis had fought so hard to save them and Dick almost died trying.

He choked, dizzy, before everything went fuzzy and black.

~~

“Kid wake up. Hey Kid!”

Wally jolted as far as he could since he was still stuck in the cement block. He blinked to clear the blurriness from his vision and found Uncle Barry standing in front of him, concern pulling the corners of his mouth down in a small frown.

He glanced past him and saw Batman kneeling next to Dick to help him sit up. Dick had a hand against his head but looked to be okay and Batman had a hand on his back to keep him upright.

“Care to get me out of this?” he asked his uncle.

“I think I might have something that’ll do the trick,” he said, holding up a high-powered saw.

Wally grinned and watched him kneel and start to work away at the rock. Captain Atom stepped up behind Connor and got to work on freeing him as J’onn cared for M’gann and Aquaman consulted Kaldur. Superman moved to wake up Artemis who was still on the ground.

Wally was happy to see when Dick got to his feet and was steady again. It made the wait for his uncle to free him even longer because of it since he wanted to go and check him over and give him the hug he was waiting on. Everyone besides him and Connor were taken away to debrief with the Leaguers while they were forced to wait to be free.

If that wasn’t bad enough, Wally couldn’t even go check on Dick once he was _out_ of the rock and able to move again because then he had to give his side to the League.

When he was finished, Uncle Barry sent him off with a knowing smile and he could feel Bruce’s gaze on him as he left through the door.

Once he was in the hallway, he zoomed off, searching for Dick. The entertainment room and the kitchen were both empty, so he made for Dick’s room first. He practically vibrated in place as he punched in the keycode and waited for the door to open, the pent up energy from being sidelined during battle finally coming out.

It was way too slow, but once he slipped inside, he was happy to see Dick shaking out his wet cape and utility belt. He was in dry jeans and a hoodie and had his sunglasses securely on his face. Wally locked the door behind him before zooming over to Dick.

He pulled his sunglasses off and threw them towards the bed, pulling Dick into a tight hug.

“Ugh, dude,” he said, squirming in his hold. “I just took a shower.”

“Don’t care,” Wally grumbled, pressing his face into Dick’s clean hair and breathing him in.

Dick sighed, relaxing against him before he slowly wrapped his arms around his back.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Wally said.

“I’m glad you’re okay, too,” Dick mumbled against his chest. “I never thought we’d get attacked in the Cave,” he added.

“And by two superpowered robots no less,” Wally grumbled.

“You should go get a shower and get changed. I’m pretty sure soaking in water for like an hour isn’t good for you,” Dick said.

He laughed. “I can’t get sick. And give me a few more minutes. I think I had a panic attack while being drowned because you passed out after being attacked by the Reds,” he said, tightening his hold on Dick.

“I’m okay,” he insisted.

Wally let out a breath and pulled back. Dick tilted his head back to meet his eyes, his own shining the brilliant blue they always did. He ducked his head and Dick met him in a kiss, arching his back as Wally towered over him and fought to press closer.

“You should really go shower,” Dick said when they finally pulled apart to breathe.

Wally whined and let his head fall to Dick’s shoulder.

“It’ll take you two seconds,” he said, combing his fingers through his tangled hair. “And I’ll be here when you get back.”

“Ugh, fine,” Wally conceded. He stole one last kiss before he sped off, unlocking the door and racing through it to his own room. The door opened too slowly and was still open by the time he’d showered and changed and raced back through to get to Dick.

He was forced to open Dick’s door _again_ and sped inside, waiting impatiently for the doors to slide shut so he could lock them. Dick had his glasses on again and was hanging up the last pieces of his uniform.

Wally stepped up behind him and wrapped his arms around his waist. Dick moved with the hold, finishing what he was doing before he pulled his glasses off and tossed them onto his desk. He pulled Wally over to his bed and laid down, curling against Wally’s side and soaking up his warmth after being drenched multiple times.

He sighed, body relaxing as Wally wrapped an arm around him wanting to keep him as close as he could. The day had been rough and wasn’t an experience Wally wanted to repeat anytime soon. Instead, he wanted to curl around Dick and content himself with the fact he was alive and breathing. And he’d bury the realization of how distraught he’d been at the thought of Dick dying, knowing he couldn’t risk that information getting out when it came to the team’s other missions.

Besides, Dick dying was something that could never happen. And he’d never let himself be put in a position where it might happen again and he was forced to watch on the sidelines.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are loved and appreciated!
> 
> You can find me on [Tumblr](my-one-love-is-music.tumblr.com) and [Twitter](twitter.com/m_o_l_i_m)


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